Part 29
In the spring of 1880 she went again to Paris, only to "feast on things artistic." A little later she was summoned to the palace at Soestdijk to instruct the Princess Henry of the Netherlands. In 1883 she served with many distinguished artists on the art jury of the International Exhibition at Amsterdam.
In 1884 she once more yielded to the attraction that Paris had for her, and there made a great advance in her painting. In 1885 she began to work in pastel, and one of her best portraits in this medium was that of the Princess (Queen) Wilhelmina, which was loaned by the Queen Regent for the exhibition of this artist's work in Amsterdam in 1890.
The Italian Government requested Miss Schwartze to paint her own portrait for the Uffizi Gallery. This was shown at the Paris Salon, 1889, and missed the gold medal by two votes. This portrait is thought by some good judges to equal that of Mme. Le Brun. The head with the interesting eyes, shaded by the hand which wards off the light, and the penetrating, observant look, are most impressive.
She has painted a portrait of Queen Emma, and sent to Berlin in 1902 a portrait of Wolmaran, a member of the Transvaal Government, which was esteemed a work of the first rank. She has painted several portraits of her mother, which would have made for her a reputation had she done no others. She has had many notable men and women among her sitters, and though not a robust woman, she works incessantly without filling all the commissions offered her.
Her pictures are in the Museums of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Her work is full of life and strength, and her touch shows her confidence in herself and her technical knowledge. She is, however, a severe critic of her own work and is greatly disturbed by indiscriminating praise. She is serious and preoccupied in her studio, but with her friends she is full of gayety, and is greatly admired, both as a woman and as an artist.
<b>VAN DER VEER, MISS.</b> "This artist," says a recent critic, "has studied to some purpose in excellent continental schools, and is endowed withal with a creative faculty and breadth in conception rarely found in American painters of either sex. Her genre work is full of life, light, color, and character, with picturesque grouping, faultless atmosphere, and a breadth of technical treatment that verges on audacity, yet never fails of its designed purpose."
The fifty pictures exhibited by Miss Van der Veer in Philadelphia, in February, 1904, included interiors, portraits--mostly in pastel--flower studies and sketches, treating Dutch peasant life. Among the most notable of these may be mentioned "The Chimney Corner," "Saturday Morning," "Mother and Child," and a portrait of the artist herself.
<b>WALDAU, MARGARETHE.</b> Born in Breslau, 1860. After studying by herself in Munich, this artist became a pupil of Streckfuss in Berlin, and later, in Nuremberg, studied under the younger Graeb and Ritter. The first subject chosen by her for a picture was the "Portal of the Church of the Magdalene." Her taste for architectural motives was strengthened by travel in Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
The fine old churches of Nuremberg and the venerable edifices of Breslau afforded her most attractive subjects, which she treated with such distinction that her pictures were sought by kings and princes as well as by appreciative connoisseurs.
Her success increased her confidence in herself and enhanced the boldness and freedom with which she handled her brush. An exhibition of her work in Berlin led to her receiving a commission from the Government to paint two pictures for the Paris Exposition, 1900. "Mayence at Sunset" and the "Leipzig Market-Place in Winter" were the result of this order, and are two of her best works.
Occasionally this artist has painted genre subjects, but her real success has not been in this direction.